"We stopped," said Van, as something to be offered with a grain of hope.
"But we did a lot before we stopped," said Percy. A deep gloom had settled over his countenance, and he wouldn't look at Van. "Oh, dear me!"
Van fidgeted about for a minute,
"Well, I don't know," he said, twisting his hands. "Oh, dear me! Why, you might say I'm not a snapping-turtle," he cried cheerfully at last, and fairly hugging Percy in his delight.
"So I might," said Percy, well pleased, "but I didn't say you were a snapping-turtle; I said you were as cross as a snapping-turtle."
"Well, you might say I'm not as cross as a snapping-turtle, then," said
Van, determined to fix it some way.
So Percy said it, and then the two brothers plunged out of doors without a thought of the formalities of any plan. But it was Van who furnished it after all.
"Let's go down and see [Candace]," he said.
"Oh, yes, let's," cried Percy, [then] he stopped short and began to laugh.
"What's the matter?" Van twitched his sleeve.